RKD STUDIES

Bibliografie

... red.), Antwerpen, verhaal van een metropool, 16de-17de eeuw, tent.cat. Antwerpen (Hessenhuis) 1993...

... red.), Extravagant! Een kwarteeuw Antwerpse schilderkunst herontdekt, 1500-1530, tent.cat. Antwerpen (Koninklijk Museum...

... and the Christ Child on the Road of Life (outer wings), Leiden, c. 1525’, in: J.P. Filedt Kok (red.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online cat. Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum): https://data.rijksmu...

... c. 1520’, in: J.P. Filedt Kok (red.), Early Netherlandish Pain...

... unciation (outer wing), c. 1515 - c. 1525’, in: J.P. Filedt Kok (red.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online cat. Amsterdam (Rijk...

... 1520-40)’, in: J.P. Filedt Kok (red.), Early Netherlandish Paint...

... t’, in: N. Muller, B. Rosasco, J. Marrow (red.), Herri met de Bles. Studies and expl...

... red.), Antwerp in the Renaissance, Turnhout 2020 (Studies in European urban history (1100-1800), dl. 49)...

... oeuvre of Matthijs Cock reconsidered’, Master Drawings 50 (2012), p...

... derdrawing’, in: David Bomford (red.), Art in the Making: Underd...

... in: N. Muller, B. Rosasco, J. Marrow (red.), Herri met de Bles. Studies and ...

... red.), Lucas van Leyden en de Renaissance, tent.cat. Leiden (Museum De Lakenhal) 2011...

... red.), Hieronymus Cock. De renaissance in prent, tent.cat. Leuven (M – Museum Leuven) / Parijs (Fondation Custodia – Co...

4.1 Introduction

... triotism which prevent them, for the most part, from visiting even the studios of artists of reputation who are not their compatriots’.5Léopold Robert’s contemporary Stendhal, pen name of Marie-Henri Beyle (1783-1842), with regard to French artists, asserted in his Promenades dans Rome (1829) that ‘the young artists established in Rome [...] form an oasis perfectly isolated from Italian society’.6Robert compared the situation in 1828 with the one he had shared ten years before with Navez, who had stayed in Rome from late 1817 to late 1821. Was Robert’s impression of increasing national isolation among Rome’s artistic community confirmed some 15 years later, when his namesake, the Belgian painter Alexandre Robert (1817-1890) arrived in the Eternal City? There is a connection between both moments in time that can be helpful to answer this question; the linking pin here is François-Joseph Navez. Alexandre Robert...

1.3 Case Study for Using the DttG database – Grey over Red Double Grounds

... -Witlox’s reconstructions also confirm the economic advantage of this structure: substituting earth pigments for part of the lead-white mass yields measurable cost savings while maintaining a workable, visually coherent surface.28Returning to the database, we see these ideas confirmed across a broad sample of paintings. Of the 834 paintings currently in the database, 142 have grey over red double grounds and 193 have double grounds with a red first ground.29 However, there are only 33 paintings with a red uppermost ground, indicating that painters did not regularly choose this colour to paint on. In contrast, the database has 281 paintings with a grey uppermost ground (including single grounds). Indeed, light grey was the most popular ground colour to work on during this period, as shown in Figure 1.2. These results support the idea that the lower layer of a double ground was chosen for structural and economic rather than optical reasons.The grey-over-red double ground provides a particularly revealing lens through which to examine artistic decision-making and knowledge transfer. As briefly described here, its dual structure encapsulates two of the main motivations for Netherlandish artists to adopt coloured grounds: economic consideration and aesthetic ambition. It reflects both the pragmatic demands of a growing art market and an evolving understanding of how colour, tone, and material structure could interact to shape pictorial effect. In this sense, it exemplifies the kind of phenomenon that the DttG database is designed to uncover—patterns of shared practice that become visible only when technical evidence is aggregated across collections and time....

1.1 Common ground types in the Netherlands 1500-1650

... eventeenth century. Painters typically applied multiple coats of fine chalk mixed with animal glue, producing a smooth surface ideal for meticulous brushwork. This chalk-based first ground was highly absorbent and needed to be isolated before oil-based paint layers could be applied. It is in this second ground layer that subtle tints, such as pale greys, various pinks, and light yellows, began to appear from the early sixteenth century onward, anticipating the more colourful approaches seen on canvas.On canvas supports, the first ground was most often earth-based and oil-bound, composed of iron-oxide reds, brown and yellow ochres, or clays. These mixtures provided flexibility and were applied more thinly, allowing canvases to be rolled for transport without cracking. Earth pigments were also attractively inexpensive. Although technically possible to paint directly onto this first ground layer, artists rarely did so, particularly when it was dark in colour. The frequent use of neutral-toned second grounds suggests that these second layers were primarily intended to “correct” the colour of the first ground....

... in section 1.3.Beyond Rembrandt, detailed analyses exist for artists such as Jan Steen (1626–1679) and Frans Hals (1583–1666).10 While these investigations provide valuable insight into individual working methods, they cannot on their own capture broader material patterns. The DttG database brings together the widest possible range of available evidence to begin addressing this imbalance, but important gaps remain. Expanding the dataset to include a wider range of contemporaries is essential for developing a more representative picture of seventeenth-century painting practice, one that will continue to sharpen and evolve as new data are added.The material diversity revealed in the DttG database provides the foundation for understanding how and why coloured grounds were adopted across the Netherlands. The following section traces their chronological development and regional diffusion, situating these technical observations within broader artistic, economic, and theoretical contexts....

3.1 Guide for using the DttG Database

... single/1 versus double/2), filter by support, and filter by city in which the artist was active. The Sort by function is described above, and finally users have the option to “Toggle top layer” which will show all the results in a table with only the uppermost ground colour (schematic) showing. This is helpful for visualising the colour painters were working on, visually simplifying multi-layered grounds.Users can choose to narrow their results by using as many of the search/filter options as they like per query. Results will conform to all of the filters (e.g. if a user searches for Bloemaert but also chooses Utrecht in “Place of execution,” the results will not include the paintings he made in Amsterdam).Advanced SearchFor advanced queries, for which users wish to use more filters or be able to select multiple filter options, switch to Advanced Search. Users can now choose multiple Artists, Cities of Execution, Numbers of Grounds, and Colours of topmost or bottom grounds.Multiple selections can be made by holding Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) while clicking. For example, users can select multiple artist names, which will then be highlighted in blue, to see a results of paintings by all of the chosen painters. Users can choose multiple options in all of the search fields to further narrow results. The “Colour of bottom ground” and “Colour of topmost ground” fields show only the broad colour category, so users choosing Grey will see results including grey, light grey, and dark grey grounds. An example of the utility of these fields is filtering for the common grey over red double ground. For this, users should select both Red and Orange in “Colour of bottom ground” (to account for the multiple shades of clay used for “red” ground layers) and Grey in “Colour of topmost ground.” The results will show all grey over red/orange double grounds, and can be sorted by any of the options in the “Order by” drop-down.An additional function of the Advanced Search is the ability to filter by “Minimum Reliability.” To see a description of the reliability system, see the “Data Information” page of the database or section 2.4 of this study. In short, if users wish to only see results based on cross-section analysis, they should choose “2” as the minimum reliability.Users can also “Toggle additional query fields” in the lower left of the advanced search form. This will add additional search fields for Support, Medium, and level of analysis (Sampled, Microscopy, Elemental Analysis). The level of analysis filters are another way of filtering for reliability, and match up with the Reliability system. Users can Command+click to choose multiple supports, just as with the search fields above. All paintings currently in the database are painted with an oil medium.Users can reset the search form in the lower right of the form.Export resultsTo export results as a CSV file with basic metadata and ground colour information for all paintings shown in the results at the time of export, click “Export to CSV” in the upper right corner of the table. The file will download automatically. When using data from the Down to the Ground database, please cite this RKD Study and acknowledge the database creators, as described in the colophon, along with the sources and researchers listed on each individual painting page of the database....

2.2 Principles of Relational Database Design and Structured Query Language (SQL)

... of information only once. In the context of the Down to the Ground (DttG) database, for example, all information about artists is stored in a dedicated Artist table, while each painting has its own record in a separate Artwork table. Rather than duplicating an artist...

... s executed between 1600 and 1625 that use a red ground with a confirmed material analysis. Such a query draws together information from multiple tables–metadata stored in the Artwork table, geographic data from the Artist table, and data on grounds from the Data table–by filtering, joining, and comparing records according to d...

Bibliography

... chnical) Art Historical Research.” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 17, no. 2 (forthcoming 2025).Hendriks, Ella. “Haarlem Studio Practice.” In Painting in Haarlem 1500–1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, 65–96. Ghent: Ludion, 2006.“ICONCLASS.” Accessed October 10, 2025. https://iconclass.org/.“Getty Vocabularies.” The Getty Research Institute. Accessed October 10, 2025. https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/.Levine, Laura. “Lead Soaps in 17th Century Gray on Red Double-ground Systems in Northwestern Europe.” Master's thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2023.Miedema, Hessel, and Bert Meijer. “The Introduction of Coloured Ground in Painting and Its Influence on Stylistic Development, with Particular Respect to Sixteenth-Century Netherlandish Art.” Storia dell’Arte 35 (1979): 79–98.Russell, Joanna, et al. “Experiments Using Image Processing Software (NIP2) to Define the Colour of Preparatory Layers in 16th-Century Italian Paintings.” In Ground Layers in European Painting 1550–1750, edited by Anne Haack Christensen et al., vol. 5, CATS Proceedings. London: Archetype Publications, 2020.Stols-Witlox, Maartje. A Perfect Ground: Preparatory Layers for Oil Paintings 1550–1900. London: Archetype Publications, 2017.Stols-Witlox, Maartje, and Lieve d’Hont. “Remaking Colored Grounds: Reconstructions for Art Technical and Art Historical Research.” Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 17, no. 2 (forthcoming 2025).“TAHPaul/DttG_db.” Python. Created August 5, 2022; released May 13, 2024. https://github.com/TAHPaul/DttG_db.Van de Wetering, Ernst. Rembrandt: The Painter at Work. Revised edition. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018.“Counting Vermeer.” RKD Studies. Accessed October 10, 2025. https://countingvermeer.rkdstudies.nl/....

2.4 Considerations in Data Quality, Normalisation, and Consistency

... cross-section images across multiple institutions.34In developing the DttG database, we also encountered areas where no suitable controlled vocabulary was available. Two aspects were particularly critical for the project’s goals: the description of ground colours and the assessment of the reliability of data from varied sources. Without consistent colour terminology, the database could not support meaningful queries across different paintings, as free-text descriptions such as “reddish brown,” “light umber,” or “brownish red” vary widely between sources and observers. Similarly, given that the collected data derives from a mixture of published analyses, unpublished reports, and visual observations, it was essential to provide users with a clear way of judging the relative reliability of each record. To address these challenges, we developed two bespoke systems: a colour classification scheme tailored to ground layers, and a reliability index that rates the strength of evidence for each entry. Together, these frameworks ensure that users can filter and compare records in meaningful and reproducible ways....

... hite, and brown particles.” While these are all accurate descriptions, they do not allow for the grouping, and thus querying, across larger amounts of data. By reducing such variation into a shared category—“Light Brown”—similar records can be compared and queried together. Detailed descriptions are preserved as free-text notes, but the standardised term enables large-scale analysis. More targeted investigations would have more use for the free-text detailed description, but these later invest...

2.1 The Limits of Traditional Data Repositories in Humanities Research

... y across rows. Data redundancy (e.g. the same artist or pigment name repeated across multiple entries) introduced inevitable inconsistencies. A minor spelling variation or typographic error could fragment research results, and compromise data continuity and comparative analysis. Spreadsheet software lacks mechanisms for enforcing relationships between different categories of data. There is nothing to prevent a user from entering contradicting metadata, or a pigment or artist name incorrectly in a way that does not match other entries, since these fields exist independently with no built-in checks.To address these limitations, we made the decision to migrate the dataset to a structured relational database. This transformation, from a single static, locally stored spreadsheet to a normalized, interlinked data model, represented a further rethinking of how the data could be structured not simply to store information, but to actively support and sustain research....

1.2 The Introduction and Spread of Coloured Grounds in the Netherlands

... nstrates that experimentation with tinted preparations began earlier than previously assumed. Artists such as Jan Gossaert (1478–1532) and Maarten van Heemskerck (1498–1574), both of whom later travelled to Italy, had already employed pinkish or greyish ground layers before their journeys south. These early examples suggest that awareness of the pictorial and technical potential of coloured grounds was already embedded in Netherlandish workshop practice and did not rely solely on southern prototypes....

... untries.Between roughly 1590 and 1630, coloured grounds were adopted across the Netherlands with remarkable speed. Landscape painters such as Esaias van de Velde (1587–1630) and Jan van Goyen (1596–1656) employed light grey and brown grounds to unify their compositions tonally and to paint more efficiently.14 In Utrecht, Abraham Bloemaert and his peers Paulus Moreelse (1571–1638), Joachim Wtewael (1566–1638), and later the Utrecht Caravaggisti, embraced darker red and grey grounds to heighten chiaroscuro effects and to translate Italianate styles and compositions into local idioms.15 Amsterdam’s painters, many of whom were engaged in portraiture and genre painting, tended toward paler, neutral double grounds that facilitated subtle modelling and controlled surface finish. Figure 1.6 shows top ground-layer colours by city; the prominence of Amsterdam largely results from the extensive technical study of Rembrandt and ...

... hadow, and contributing to the atmospheric coherence so prized in seventeenth-century painting.The combined evidence from technical data, art-historical context, and economic history thus redefines the adoption of coloured grounds as a multifaceted process rooted in local innovation and cross-regional exchange. Rather than a derivative import from Italy, coloured grounds in the Netherlands emerged from an evolving dialogue between material knowledge, artistic ambition, and market dynamics—a transformation in painters’ material thinking that mirrors the broader redefinition of painting as both craft and intellectual pursuit in the early modern period....